Test Server Update (2013/08/01)

General Updates

Hossin

We’ve made a subsection of Hossin available in preparation for SOE Live. You can get there by clicking the “Warp to Hossin” button on the Warpgate Terminal screen that’s been taunting you for all this time.

Only the center of the continent is available with some temp structures to support the smaller size, but you’ve now got a decent chunk of Hossin to play with. The new interlink facility is there too, so go nuts and give us any of your bugs and feedback.

New ESF Weapons and Reverse Thrust Tweaks

• The Mass Driver, Coyote Missiles and Locust Cannons are available for all factions, so please put them through their paces and let us know what you think.
  • We haven’t had much of a chance to play with these weapons and see how they perform and feel, so we could really use the feedback. These weapons are not set in stone, are a work in progress, still can see major changes, etc, etc, so please refrain from rejoicing, panicking, or rioting prematurely.
• We’re also trying out a change to the lift factor granted by afterburners when in hover mode. We’ve reduced it from a factor of 8 to a factor of 2. This should make the reverse thrust still doable but will lower its abruptness and diminish your top speed while doing so.

UI Optimizations

Made some changes on the backend of how UI screens are loaded to try and speed them up. We’re interested to see if this broke anything when warping between continents, dying/respawning, instant actioning, and the like.

Vehicle Stealth

Instead of all ranks of stealth removing you from the mini-map, only the final rank should remove you from the mini-map. The range increasingly lowers with each rank.

• Example, Sunderer:
  • Sunderer has an auto detect range of 100.
  • So rank 1 should reduce it to 75, rank 2: 50, rank 3: 25 and rank 4 is 0

Flight Interface Changes

• Wherever we display sea-level altitude, we also display altitude relative to the ground.
• We now show afterburner fuel in third person view

Drop Pod Changes

Reduced max drop pod speed: 37 -> 12 Increased drop pod acceleration: 5 -> 10 Resulting changes allow players to steer about 30m from the drop point, and they can more rapidly change direction closer to the ground for that last second steer-to-cover.

Platoon Mute Toggle

Added a toggle to the platoon leader’s platoon UI that lets them mute everyone but themselves.

Waypoint Icons

• Added more visual distinction between waypoint icons.
• Self waypoint: No chevron
• Squad waypoint: One chevron
• Platoon waypoint: Two chevrons
• Platoon’s squad waypoint: Three chevrons

Other Stuff

• Now updated the title of the server select screens from “Select Server” to “Recommended Server(s)” and “All Servers” respectively
• Added an option to ignore/unignore players from the chat window player context menu
• Warpgate terminal screen now has a “Territory Control” label on the pie chart
• We show up to 4 digits in the HUD ammo counter for vehicles now
• Removing the engi turret “don’t grief people” pain field areas at landing pads, tunnels, and vehicle pads until we get additional UI support for them
• Rotated the Warpgates on all continents

Bug Fixes

• Separated all the vehicle Magazine Size strings so that they are no longer shared between vehicles
• Fixed several Magazine Size strings that were displaying incorrect values on all vehicles
• West Highlands Checkpoint should no longer have a floating anti-vehicle turret
• Hacked vehicle terminals on Esamir will now properly switch back to their defending faction when destroyed
• Fixed a vehicle pad facing the wrong direction at Allatum Botany Wing
• Fixed various bugs with the nameplate, animation, and dismount audio for phalanx turrets
• NS-7B PDW ribbons will no longer confuse it for the GD-66 Claw
• Declining a revive should no longer resurrect you anyway
• Fixed an issue that could cause the teleporter in the tutorial stop working
• Painfields inside the Elli Tower will no longer damage players of all factions, regardless of who controls the point
• Harasser E540 Halberd should no longer state it is single faction use only
• Repair icons should now appear properly above destroyed friendly turrets
• Fixed display issues with the PlanetSide Veteran decal
• Ammo Belt suit upgrade should now properly grant additional ammo to the NS-7 PDW
• An air terminal at Andvari South Bank that would spawn Liberators pitching down into the ground has been fixed
• Replaced two missing AV turrets on the tower next to the main spawn room at Freyr Amp Station
• Fixed a broken Grav pad next to the vehicle terminal at Palos Solar Array
• Fixed a broken Grav pad next to the vehicle terminal at Pale Canyon Chemical
• Annoying Bugs We Already Know About
• Currently only camo and decal customizations can be equipped.